Hawaii Democratic primary in spotlight
Races for governor, Congress hotly contested; winners favored in general election
HONOLULU — The winners of most of the Democratic Party’s primary races in Hawaii this weekend will be the favorites to win the general election in November.
The most hotly contested matches in this deep blue state on Saturday were for governor and the state’s 1st Congressional District. In the 2nd District, incumbent U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, a Democrat, was a heavy favorite in her primary.
U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa challenged one-term incumbent Gov. David Ige in the gubernatorial primary. The move had echoes of four years ago when Ige, then a state senator, challenged and defeated a sitting governor, Gov. Neil Abercrombie, in the primary.
Both Hanabusa and Ige are experienced, longtime politicians in Hawaii. Ige, however, saw his popularity tumble after a false-alarm missile alert in January. Critics questioned his competence after he said he would have corrected the alert sooner, but he didn’t know his Twitter username and password. Ige spokesman Cindy McMillan said at the time that there was a 15-minute delay in an announcement because the governor had to track her down to prepare a message that no missile was headed to Hawaii.
Three Republicans, including House Minority Leader state Rep. Andria Tupola, vied for the Republican nomination. Former Pearl Harbor nonprofit Chief Executive Officer Ray L’Heureux and former state senator John Carroll are the other two.
Six major figures from the Democratic Party competed to succeed Hanabusa in Washington.
The diverse list includes a 65-year-old fiscally conservative Democrat and a 29-yearold democratic socialist who advocates giving all Americans Medicare and making college tuition free. Two of the others gained notice by opposing President Donald Trump.
Former U.S. Rep. Ed Case, the conservative Democrat, leads the field in name recognition and experience, having served in Congress before.
Asami Kobayashi, who has been volunteering for the Case campaign, said she liked his message of bipartisanship.
“That’s something that we really need right now when Congress seems to be really divided,” Kobayashi said.
Another contender, Lt. Gov. Doug Chin, gained popularity when he was state attorney general by leading Hawaii’s lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s ban on travelers from several mostly Muslim-majority countries.
That, along with his support for boosting spending on public education and boosting teacher salaries, earned Chin the endorsement of the Hawaii State Teachers Association, one of the state’s most powerful unions.
“We have seen that Doug Chin is courageous and is willing to take unpopular stands in order to protect minorities in this country,” said Corey Rosenlee, the union’s president.
Also running were veteran lawmaker Donna Mercado Kim, a former state Senate president, and Ernie Martin, the current chairman of the Honolulu City Council.
Kaniela Ing, a state representative, hoped his calls for tuition-free college, canceling student debt and Medicare-for-all would help him reprise the dramatic come-from-behind victory his New York democratic socialist colleague, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, scored two months ago. Ocasio-Cortez defeated a powerful sitting congressman in her Democratic primary in June.
On Thursday, Ocasio-Cortez campaigned for Ing in Honolulu.
Beth Fukumoto was another candidate who made her name opposing Trump. In her case, she was a member of the Republican Party, serving as the House minority leader in the state House of Representatives, when she criticized Trump during the Women’s March in Honolulu. Members of her party asked her to resign her leadership post afterward. In response, she quit the party altogether and joined the Democrats.
Fukumoto’s defection whittled the Republican Party’s presence in the state House to just five out of 51 members. There is currently no Republican in the 25-member state Senate.
There is also no Republican among the state’s four-person congressional delegation in Washington.
The GOP fielded candidates in five of the 13 state Senate districts up for election this year. It has candidates running in fewer than 20 of the state’s 51 House districts.